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Sabbath Devotional :: Unity and Difference
Last week, we celebrated the Relief Society’s birthday or, as I like to call it, “The One Day a Year When Being a Mormon History Nerd Makes You Interesting and Popular.” One of my favorite episodes in Relief Society history is an argument between two Relief Society leaders with intractable opinions and healthy self-confidence. What is unusual about this particular argument is that it took place in the office of President Heber J. Grant. The women were Amy Brown Lyman and Susa Young Gates, both members of the Relief Society General Board. Amy Lyman had been asked by Joseph F. Smith to establish a Social Services Department within the Church…
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Sabbath Devotional: By the Sweat of thy Brow … Holding Nothing Back
Late one recent February night, despite my hours of reading and writing about peace and conflict resolution, I could only feel the dull flatness of a sense of stupor like the Lord describes in Section 9: 9 of the Doctrine of Covenants: “But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong; therefore, you cannot write that which is sacred save it be given you from me. “ Despite all my studying and seeking for inspiration about this assignment, I kept turning my ideas over and over in my…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Lessons Learned
As this week marked the one-year anniversary of the explosion of the COVID-19 pandemic, I found myself reflecting on the experiences of the past year. It has been a strange year, surreal at times. It has been a difficult year. For many of us it has been an intensely painful year. But I have been reminded that intense pain often brings intense growth. I have been learning many lessons. I attempt to share just a few of them below. Accepting Uncertainty One thing that came up often for me over the last year was uncertainty. Uncertainty about the future: for myself, for my family, for my country. Uncertainty about what…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Magnify
I was called to a primary presidency while in the throes of morning sickness with a rainbow baby following my second miscarriage. I was downright crabby and to make matters worse I was assigned to be the counselor over Cub Scouts. Hats off to the super scouters out there! I grew up in a part member family and my knowledge of and passion for scouting was non-existent. I did feel reassured that the calling was where the Lord wanted me, so I proceeded, but again, with crabbiness. The new primary president had been the counselor over scouting before her call as president but she was no help whatsoever. I couldn’t…
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Sabbath Devotional :: The Choice Between Outside or Clean
A few weeks ago I started feeling some familiar feelings of regret. It is probably because we are approaching the anniversary of a global pandemic and since this time was so remarkable, I feel that I should have done something remarkable with it. Those feelings are familiar to me. Regret is a powerful, universal emotion that burns its way into our thoughts. We sometimes talk about regret in the context of sin, because regret can propel us positively to repent and change. The emotion can also protect us from making and repeating mistakes, so it certainly isn’t all bad. But the kind of regret that makes me feel ashamed that…
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Sabbath Devotional :: The Divine Complexity of Our Current Circumstances
The temperature here in Omaha has been hovering around 0 degrees for over a week now, often dipping into negative territory, with more frigid weather to come. And we keep getting new layers of snow laid on top of what came the day before, with barely enough time to chip away at them. It kind of feels like we will never be able to go outside again. Even when I am inside, I can feel the never-ending chill of the ice that seems like it is trying to break its way into my home. I have cold toes, cold fingers, and, if I am being honest, a cold heart at…
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Sabbath Devotional :: The Power of Personal Narrative in Creating Identity and Vision
As a junior in high school, I usually enjoyed my popular Thomas Hardy/Charles Dickens English class with Mr. Thompson. He had a quick wit and engaging teaching style that usually led to interesting discussions among my classmates about all kinds of social topics. On one particular morning, as I sat ready to participate in our literature discussion, Mr. Thompson began with the following statement: “As we all know, religious people are just looking for a crutch to explain their suffering.” As a devoted religious teenage girl living in a largely secular community in Northern California, I sat there shocked, but silent. I was not prepared to say anything to contradict…
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Sabbath Devotional :: MWEG Turns Four: Three Miracles and a Birthday Wish
This past Tuesday — January 26, 2021 — MWEG turned four. My little granddaughter, Lizzie, also recently turned four. Watching this miraculous little being flitter-tromp about in her princess tiara and dinosaur-green rain boots, chattering nonstop while showing off her new trick of hopping on one foot and then turning a somersault (whoops! there goes a boot!), fills me with unspeakable joy and delight. Four is a magical age. And it’s an age of tremendous growth and development–physical, intellectual, social. As it will be for Lizzie, so will it be for MWEG. Birthdays and other anniversaries are important milestones and provide excellent opportunities for reflecting on the past, for remembering.…
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Sabbath Devotional :: God-Reliance
Many years ago I was at a conference where one of the presenters spoke about living by what she called “the manna plan.” She referenced the story of the Israelites and the miraculous food from heaven that the Lord provided for them as they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. This edible substance, known as manna, appeared on the ground every morning. The Israelites were instructed to gather only what they needed for that day. If they gathered more than that to save some for later, it would spoil. The exception to this was the day before the Sabbath, when they were commanded to gather enough for two days.…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Learn of Me
I have been having moments of melancholy recently because of what has been happening in the country. COVID, the election saga, and other world issues take their toll on a person. There are times when it overwhelms me. I realize that I have been leaning on my own understanding (really dumb). So I have taken to reading material about the Savior and learning of him in my scriptures and other books I have in my library. One of those books is titled The Redeemer: Reflections on the Life and Teachings of Jesus the Christ. It contains essays written by several different authors. I have also started bringing a journal to sacrament…
